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Es Devlin has created pop and opera sets but closing the Games is her biggest task yet

It was a severed head that took Es Devlin to the Olympics. Had the UK’s most
sought-after set designer not been working on a production of Strauss’s Salome
for Covent Garden, featuring a decapitated bonce of John the Baptist
remarkable for its anatomical correctness, then the pop star Mika would
never have seen Devlin’s work in a TV documentary and asked her to design
his first stadium show. Mika’s production manager was also working on Take
That’s 2009 tour which Devlin ended up creating alongside the creative
director Kim Gavin. Take That’s The CircusTourLive
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